This Is Missouri
MU Leads the Way
Known as a 'public ivy' in the Midwest, the University of Missouri offers a strong academic reputation, challenging atmosphere, multiple degree options -- plus a concern for each student. MU truly is a living-learning community dedicated to student success and service to Missourians.
Founded in 1839, MU represented the birth of public higher education west of the Mississippi River. The 1,340-acre campus is Missouri's flagship university, combining the resources of a comprehensive research institution and a state land-grant university.
The first school in the country to organize traditional homecoming festivities, MU also claims the world's first journalism school, the first teacher-education program west of the Mississippi and one of the country's first electrical-engineering departments.
With 18 schools and colleges, 251 degree programs and 438 student clubs and organizations, MU can meet the expectations of students with wide-ranging career and personal goals. MU also is one of only five institutions in the nation with law, medicine and veterinary medicine on a single campus, which produces unique opportunities for collaboration.
Shared Values
Recently, representatives of MU's students, faculty and staff chose four values to be the foundation of the University's identity as a community: respect, responsibility, discovery and excellence. As MU pursues its goals, these shared values will be reflected as much as possible in institutional policies and practices.
Facilities for a New Millennium
Faculty, staff and students recently moved into MU's new Chemistry Building, with state-of-the-art teaching and research labs. Also, with the opening of the Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Building, the natural resources disciplines are under one roof for the first time.
In progress is a new 30,000-square-foot greenhouse and lab complex, a new critical-care facility for the Health Sciences Center and a two-story Eckles Hall addition for the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Other projects include the Sports Park at MU, a campaign to further upgrade MU's intercollegiate athletics facilities; Cornell Hall, the new headquarters for the College of Business and Public Administration; and plans to construct a Center for Life Sciences Research.
Tiger Conservation
Although there are many universities with a tiger mascot, MU is the first to actively support conservation of critically endangered wild tigers, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The Mizzou Tigers for Tigers program is a pioneering effort to raise awareness and support to ensure that there will be wild tigers for as long as there are Missouri Tigers. Check out the Web site at http://www.missouri.edu/~tigers.
Diversity
MU is committed to increasing opportunities on campus for students of color and to fostering multiculturalism to prepare students for the diverse world that awaits them upon graduation. Currently, MU has 22,723 students representing every county in Missouri, every state in the nation and 114 countries.
The new $2.4 million state-of-the-art home for the Black Culture Center and MU's aggressive recruitment and retention programs have helped bring more students of color to campus. Other initiatives are boosting diversity as well. The National Science Foundation chose MU as one of only eight universities in the nation to receive a $2.4 million grant for a nine-year Minority Graduate Education Project. The project is designed to recruit and train students of color to become college faculty in the fields of science, engineering and mathematics. In addition, MU recently opened a new Asian Affairs Center and was chosen as one of 10 universities in the country to be designated a European Union Center.
Prepared Students
MU is a top academic leader in the Big 12 Conference. Each year a greater number of academically talented freshmen enroll at the University. This year's freshman class, which increased by more than eight percent in the fall of 1998, has the highest ACT average in MU history at 25.8, compared with a national average of 21.8 and state average of 22.6. More than one-third come from the top-10 percent of their high school classes.
Employment
MU graduates are prime prospects for good jobs and are recruited by national and international companies, including: American Airlines, TWA, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Caterpillar, DuPont, Emerson Electric, Gateway 2000, General Mills, General Motors Corp., Hallmark Cards Inc., IBM, Kraft Foods Inc., Marriott, Microsoft Corp., Oscar Meyer, Price Waterhouse LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, Proctor & Gamble, Ralston Purina, Sprint, State Farm Insurance Company, 3M Company, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Upjohn, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.
A Learning Community
Other programs developed by the University to foster student success include MU's Four-Year Graduation Plan, an improved student advising program and living-learning communities, where students with shared academic interests live in the same residence hall and attend classes together. Students living in Freshman Interest Groups, learning communities designed specifically for first-time college students, earn better grades and return to MU in higher numbers.
High Marks for Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently funded a report that cited MU as a positive example of how faculty at a major research university dedicate themselves to good teaching. In 1997, Mizzou won the prestigious Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for its ground-breaking general education program, which was named a national model for enhancing undergraduate teaching and student learning.
Undergraduates in Research
MU is one of the leading public institutions in the country for the number and range of opportunities it offers undergraduates to participate with world-class scholars in research, ranging from studies of ancient languages and literature to molecular biology. MU's commitment has been boosted by organizations such as the National Science Foundation, which honored the University with its $500,000 Recognition Award for Integration of Research into Education. Other benefactors include the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Beckman Foundation.
Mission Enhancement
In recent years, the General Assembly has appropriated additional funds to colleges and universities that are used to enhance unique programs within their missions. In 1999, MU received nearly $4 million in mission enhancement funds and will receive another $6.45 million in 2000. Currently, MU looks forward to welcoming 36 new faculty members, whose salaries will be funded by the first year of mission enhancement funds.
A Leader in the Life Sciences
One of MU's goals is to become a national leader in life-science research, focusing on the quality and quantity of the food supply and combating illness and disease.
MU is a founding partner with Washington University, the Missouri Botanical Garden and Monsanto Company in the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center -- to be located in St. Louis. The University of Illinois and Purdue University have since joined the $185 million project, which will focus on cultivating a basic knowledge of plants that can lead to more efficient worldwide production of food.
In the last year, the University also received the first installments of the two largest grants in MU history -- an $11 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a national center for corn genomics research and a grant for up to $12 million from the EPA for agroforestry research.
MU Extension
Through MU Extension, hundreds of thousands benefit every year from the innovation of University faculty researchers. Extension specialists bring that knowledge home to Missourians by providing expertise on important topics ranging from nutrition and parenting to water quality and community development.
The University is providing easier access for nontraditional students by offering a central point for distance courses and degree programs with MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education.
Health Sciences Center
MU's Health Sciences Center is making health care easier for rural Missourians to access through its many hospital affiliations, outreach services and extensive clinic network. For example, the unique partnership between MU and the Missouri Telemedicine Network connects 10 hospitals, four primary care clinics, one skilled nursing facility and one medical school in 14 rural Missouri counties to specialty care physicians at the Health Sciences Center. The network blends cutting-edge technologies, from electronic stethoscopes to high-speed digital phone lines, to bring rural patients closer to urban specialists, doctors closer to each other and health-care workers closer to the specialized information they need.
Support From Alumni and Friends
In his remarks at a dinner for top teachers at MU who are recognized by the William T. Kemper Foundation, geological-sciences professor Tom Freeman said that by touching the minds of students, good teachers ensure the University's future because they are "sowing the seeds of tomorrow's dedicated alumni." The word "dedicated" definitely describes MU's more than 154,000 alumni worldwide. Membership in the MU Alumni Association is at an all-time high with more than 31,000 members, a 25 percent increase since 1994. The generosity of alumni and friends has made a huge impact on the quality of University programs and facilities. Private gifts have increased for the fifth consecutive year to about $36 million -- the largest amount of private giving in Mizzou's history.
